The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-04-10
SEISMIC DISTURBANCES.
SOME FUNNY THEORIES con-
CORNING THEIR CAUSE,
UDscientific, Quasi Scientific and
Scientifle-A Lecture Delivered
In Toxic, JAPAN

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cause of these phenomena into three
kinds-unsclentifc, quasi-scientifiC
and scientific. In the former class
he included the negro preachers Of
Charleston after the late earth
quakes there, that they occurred in
consequence of the wicksdness of the
population. The Musselmans in
Java recently pray to the volcanoes
there to cease their shakings, at the
same time promising reformations of
life. That earthquakes are the di-
rect result of mans wickeduess is an
an idea that has always been COM
mon. About 1850 earthquakes were
felt in many parts of Europe,
which were widely attributed to this
cause, and innumerable SER
mons were preached, intoxicating
the lesson that if mankind would
live better lives there would be no
more earthquakes. In 17S6, after a
shock at Palermo, the people are re-
corded to have gone about scourging
themselves, and looking extremely
humble and penitent. An English
poem called THE Earthquake pub
lished in 1850, alleged the somewhat
hating verse that the disturbances
were not due to an unknown force,
nor to the groanings of the impris-
oned vapors, nor yet to the shaking
of the shores with tabled Tridents !:
ah no the tread Of impious feet
h. arNh Ina. l..
And shudderiDg with the guilty weight,
One common grave for her bad race pre-.
pares.
From this theory, which can scarce
ly have satisfied the poet himself,
Prof. Milne passed on to the myths
which attribute earthquakes to a
creature living underground. In ia
pan it is an earthquake insect" COW
cred with scales, and having eight
legs, or a great fish having a certain
rock on his head which helped to
keep him quiet. In Mongolia the
animal was said to be a frog, in India
the world bearing elephant, in the
Celebes a world supporting hog, in
North America tortoise. In Siberia
there was a myth, connected with
the great bones found there, that
these were the remains of animals
that lived underground, the tramp
ling of which made the ground shake.
In Kamschatka the legend was con-
nected with a god, Tull, who went
out hunting with his dogs. When
these latter stopped to scratch them
selves their movements produced
earthquakes. In Scandinavian my
thology, Loki having killed his broth
er Baldwin, was bound to a rock, face
upward, so that the poison of SER
pent should drop on his face. Loki's
vile, however, intercepted the poison
in a vessel, and it was only when she
had to 90 away to empty the dish that
few drops reached him and caused
him to writhe and shake the
earth, The lecturer had no means
OF collecting the fables of the South.
ern Hemisphere, but they would OBJ
viously be worth knowing for pur-
poses of comparison. As to quasi
scientific theories, these endeavored
to account for earthquakes as parts
of the ordinary operations of nature.
1t was supposed, for instance, that
they were produced by the action of
wind confined inside the earth. The
Chinese philosophers said that Yang,
the male elemeAt, entered the earth
and caused it to expand and to shake
the ground in its efforts to escape.
Its effects would be more violent be-
meath the mountains than in the
plains, and therefore earthquakes in
the north of China, which was noun
famous, were said to be more violent
than these in the south. 1t was sup
posed that when the wind was blow
ing strongly on the surface of the
earth there was calm beneath, and
vice versa. Aristotle and many other
classical writer's attributed earth
quakes TO wind in the earth. Shakes
peare, in Henry ", speaks of the
teeming earth being pinched and
vexed with kind of collie by the i'm
prisoned and unruly wind within her
womb. Then come the theory of
electrical discharges, which was ad-
vocated in 1850 by DR.. Stukely, as
well as by Percival and Priestley.
They are strongly held in California
at the present day, where it was be-
lieyed that the network of rails pro-
tected the State against any danger
Gus accumulation of electricity. But
/ Prof. Milne showed that the laying |
down Of rails in Japan had no such |
effect. He thought the electric phe-
nomena which sometimes attended |
earthquakes were their consequences,
not their causes. He had himself |
experimental with dynamite placed |
in a hole; an earth plate was fixed
about thirty yards away from the dy- |
Mantle, and from it wire was car
ried some distance to another earth
plate. When the dynamite charge
was exploded there was certainly
current produced, as was indicated
by strong DETECTION of a galvano-
meter needle at the end of the wire.
He attributed this to chemical ac-
ion. When the ground was
shaken there was always a
greater or less action by increase
or decrease of pressure in connection
with earth plate. Earth currents
1nquestionably accompany earth
Iuakes, but, as has been said, they
appear to be the consequences, not
he causes of the latter. Next came
,he chemical theories, which were
very strong in Europe up to the be-
thinning of the present century. 1t
vas imagined that under ground
here were various substances, such
IS sulphur, nitre, vitriol, which, by
heir action ON each other, resulted
n violent changes, giving rise to va
,or, the sudden production of which,
n certain cases, would shake the
ground. 1t was only in 1850 that
DR.. Mitchell, who wrote a good deal
IN the subject, first threw out the
heory that earthquakes were con-
lected in some way with volcanoes,
because they were most frequent in
countries. He observed
hat large quantities OF steam were
iiyen off from volcanoes, and came to
he conclusion that an earthquake
vas produced at the time that an at